A Moment's Forever
by Istalindar
Summary: Just a little postwar drabble. Draco visits Hermione's grave. Not as depressing as it sounds.


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Draco knelt by the gravestone in the dark, laying the pitiful bouquet on the grassy earth. Five years, it had been, five years since Hermione Granger had narrowed her eyes and pushed Draco out of the way, taking the killing curse in her chest and falling heavily to the floor beside him, the light fading from her wide open eyes even as he watched.

She had saved him. For no better reason than a deatheater was trying to kill him. She had given her life for him, the man who had tormented her unceasingly for seven years. It was something he had never understood, but always tried to live up to, since that day.

His confused mourning for her had brought him close to Ron and Harry – they recognised genuine sadness when they saw it. Or at least, when Harry saw it, coming to her bedside at two in the morning because he couldn't sleep, and finding Draco sitting beside her, her limp hand in his, tears streaming soundlessly down his face. There had been a connection then, when Harry took the seat on the other side of her in silence, and they had sat together until morning. And with Harry's tenuous friendship had come Ron's, especially when Ron had seen him at the funeral.

They didn't talk much now, anyway. They were all aurors, and usually away on missions so they didn't get much time for visiting. But when they did get together, hers was never a name they mentioned if they could help it, which Draco couldn't help feeling was a waste. Someone like her didn't deserve to be forgotten.

A step broke into his thoughts and he stood and turned, wand raised. He searched the darkness of the graveyard.

"Who's there?" He demanded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you." It was a woman, that much was clear.

"Show yourself!" Draco demanded, and a ghost stepped into the soft light given off by his wand. He struggled to keep his mouth shut as his eyes took in her figure. She was medium height and medium figure. She had short curling brown hair and brown eyes, and wore jeans and a turtleneck sweater with a thick woven pashmina wrapped around her shoulders. "Hermione?" He whispered. Five years older, it was still her. She smiled.

"If I'd realised you were so fond of me at school, I might have been nicer." She said, walking closer and glancing down at the flowers on her grave.

"It wasn't so much to do with school." He said. She waited in silence. "You saved my life for no better reason that I was in danger of dying. I owe you for that." She shrugged.

"I don't think so." She replied. "I saved you because you were about to die, and I didn't want anyone I had been even remotely close to to die. And…I think maybe you would have done the same, in my situation."

"What, saved your life instead?" he snorted. "It's unlikely." She shrugged again.

"Maybe. Maybe not. You don't know what you'd do." They started walking together, following random paths between the gravestones. "So how have you been?"

"A little confused." He admitted. "I never understood why you did it. Harry and Ron said it was unlikely I would, though, that they rarely understood you when you did things like that." She laughed.

"I see you've dropped the namecalling."

"After you died, we got to know each other better. We were all mourning you and missed you, though maybe for different reasons. We picked up on that in each other."

"I'm pleased I succeeded in that, at least." She said with a smile.

"Hermione, what are you _doing_ here?" Draco demanded finally, stopping. She smiled.

"Visiting, of course." She answered easily. Draco stared. "You saw me die, Draco. You went to my funeral and saw my coffin lowered into the ground over there."

"But-" Draco reached out to touch her shoulder and his hand passed through her, and he slumped.

"I'm sorry." She smiled slightly.

"Why are you back here?" He asked, looking searchingly at her face. "Ghosts usually have unfinished business, but-"

"I wasn't ready to die, Draco." She shrugged. "But it didn't hold me back. I've been beyond death and I came back to visit. I can, sometimes. It depends on the date. Halloween is easiest, and it's not too hard on the anniversary, either."

"So you came back to see us?"

"Why else? You and Harry and Ron were dear to me. Just because I'm dead doesn't mean I have to abandon you."

"I wasn't dear to you." Draco shook his head. "It's still a wonder why you saved me."

"At the time? I couldn't imagine anything else. I saw the look on Lucius' face when he saw you beside me and I knew what he was going to do. So I acted."

"But it was _me_." Draco insisted, and she laughed that rich happy laugh he'd found himself missing over the years.

"Draco, you don't understand." She framed his face with her hands and he thought he felt the whisper of her skin against his. "Then, five years ago, I loved you. You were a dearer friend to me than even you knew and I did as I would do for Harry or Ron. You wouldn't die while I could prevent it, and I could so I did. This is not so bad a tradeoff."

"But you're _dead_."

"So I am. But you'll find the afterlife is quite interesting. So many fascinating people." She grinned. "Draco, don't worry. And stop mourning for me. I'm fine, and I'm happy. It's rather like I've simply moved away." She rolled her eyes. "And you may tell Harry and Ron that. And add onto that the comment that they may avoid speaking my name all they wish but it won't make me go away, nor will it make me come back." She smiled, then glanced over her should as if in response to someone behind her.

"I have to go." She said, shaking her head to cut off Draco's protest. "Stay safe, Draco. I didn't die so you could get hit by a bus."

"Hermione, I-" Hermione laughed again and leaned forward to kiss him, her touch a bare whisper on his lips before she stepped back.

"Send Harry and Ron my love." She said with a smile, one hand ghosting along the side of his face as she turned to the sound behind her again. Draco heard nothing.

"Goodnight, Draco." She said with a smile.

"Hermione?"

"Goodnight." Her form wavered and for a second Draco thought he saw another figure behind her, as ghostlike as she, before both vanished. Draco stared.

And then he went home.

He never saw her again.

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End file.
